Freezer-Friendly Meal Prep: Baked Turkey Meatballs

10/16/18

These Baked Turkey Meatballs are awesome for freezer-friendly meal prep! In this recipe for meatballs in oven, I show you how to include them in low carb meal prep bowls with spiralized zucchini & tomato sauce so you can eat healthy lunches all week!

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When the colder months are approaching, I like to change up the type of meal prep I do so that it helps me push past the winter blues.

I don't know about you but I really lose motivation sometimes when it gets dark out – I have trouble making dinner and every little thing starts to feel like a chore.

On days when everything just feels too hard or you're just too lazy to cook, these baked turkey meatballs are sure to help you out (or these sticky sriracha lettuce wraps are an amazing variation too!)

Seriously, freezer meals are the bomb and you can totally freeze these turkey meatballs. As long as you eat them within 3 months they'll stay juicy and good as new so you can add them to last minute meal prep bowls or heat them up along with some pasta, rice or veggies for dinner – your choice!

Have no ground turkey on hand? Fear not! These baked turkey meatballs can also be made with ground chicken, ground pork or ground beef so feel free to go with whatever you have on hand (or what's on sale!)

How to Make Baked Turkey Meatballs

So meatballs in the oven are actually pretty easy to do, and require no extra cooking oil as long as you use parchment paper. Line a baking sheet with it and preheat the oven to 400 F.

Meanwhile, mix together finely diced onions, minced garlic, dijon mustard, fresh parsley, breadcrumbs and an egg. Make sure your onions are diced up really small so that they add extra moisture to the meatballs without causing them to have any cracks – large chunks of onion tend to be responsible for this so you want to go teeny tiny here. Alternatively, you can also grate the onion using a cheese grater to still get that flavour and keep the moisture.

You can also use dried parsley if need be so you really don't need any special ingredients to make these baked turkey meatballs.

Once you've mixed the ingredients together, roll the meatballs into 1-inch balls and place them on the parchment-lined baking sheet, then bake for 10 minutes per side.

Super easy right?

And while the meatballs are cooking, you can assemble any sides you want to pair with them (grains or veggies), or you can just do up the dishes and prepare a large Ziploc bag so they can go right in the freezer after cooling for a little bit, and then you've got some wholesome food in the freezer for those days you don't have time or energy to cook but still want something homemade.

I paired these baked turkey meatballs with some spiralized zucchini and topped the zoodles with some jarred tomato sauce for an easy meal – it's a great way to make these meatballs lower carb while also eliminating any extra cooking time.

You can buy your zucchini spiralled already in your local grocery store to save on prep time – that's what I did and it's one of my top meal prep tricks. Buy your veggies ready to go in the produce area (usually found near the fresh salad dressings and dips or alongside boxes of greens) and save time in the kitchen and on your weekly meal prep!

You can of course also use a spiralizer so it's up to you!

Just add a little bit of tomato sauce overtop and you're ready to microwave these bowls! Reheat for 2-4 minutes until the zucchini has softened and the meatballs are hot inside.

These baked turkey meatball meal prep bowls are so perfect for your work week lunches or you wait to add the meatballs out of the freezer to all sorts of dinners.

The choice is up to you!

Will you be making these Baked Turkey Meatballs?

They're so garlicky, juicy and tasty – I think they're the only way I'm ever going to make meatballs moving forward.

If you try any of my recipes be sure to let me know on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or in the comments – I’d love to see what you come up with!

Freezer-Friendly Meal Prep: Baked Turkey Meatballs

These Baked Turkey Meatballs are awesome for freezer-friendly meal prep! In this recipe for meatballs in oven, I show you how to include them in low carb meal prep bowls with spiralized zucchini & tomato sauce so you can eat healthy lunches all week!

Prep Time15mins

Cook Time20mins

Total Time35mins

Course: Entree

Cuisine: American

Servings: 4meal prep bowls

Calories: 361kcal

Ingredients

2-3zucchini, spiralized (I just buy a 500g package from the grocery store pre-made)

1jartomato sauce (make sure there's no sugar added for Whole 30)

Baked turkey meatballs

1lbground turkey or chicken (you could even do extra lean ground beef too!)

1/3cupbreadcrumbs

1/4cupfinely chopped fresh parsley (or 1 tbsp dried)

1egg

1medium-sized yellow onion, finely diced

1tbspdijon mustard

3clovesgarlic minced

1/2tspeach salt and pepper

Instructions

Mix all ingredients for ground turkey meatballs in a large bowl, stirring until well-combined. Wet hands with water and roll into 1-inch meatballs, creating 20 of them. Add to baking sheet in rows and bake for 20 minutes, flipping halfway through.

Meanwhile, spiralize zucchini or add prepared zucchini to meal prep bowls and top with a bit of tomato sauce. When meatballs come out of oven, add 5 to each bowl. Bowls will keep in fridge up to 5 days.

If freezing, place in a thick plastic bag and label with date. Will keep in freezer up to 6 months.

About Taylor Stinson

Hey there, my name's Taylor! I’m the founder of The Girl on Bloor, a food blog where I share healthy meal prep recipes for busy people. I'm a busy city girl living in downtown Toronto on (you guessed it!) Bloor Street. I also run the awesome 5-Day Meal Prep Challenge, which is a free email course and Facebook group where I share my meal planning strategies and easy meal prep tips and recipes. Be sure to check out my free beginner’s guide to meal prep and follow me on YouTube and Instagram to get my latest recipes and healthy eating inspiration.

I love these! So easy to make, delicious, and love that you can freeze them (makes life easier when I’m not sure what to make for dinner/lunch). Versatile too–I like the zucchini idea you suggested. I also made meatball subs and, at another time, had them with rice and veggies.

Would you recommend decreasing the baking time if I plan to freeze to ensure they do not dry out when reheating after thawing? Have you ever made these with Zucchini in the meatball as well? Assume you can freeze just the same?

Hey Hannah – have not tried the zucchini in the meatball but it sounds yummy! I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. And yes you could decrease the cook time up to 2-5 minutes. I wouldn’t suggest any more just because you don’t want the meat to be undercooked. Hope that helps!